


Arelim

by keerawa



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Case Fic, Community: watsons_woes, Gen, Judaism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-04
Updated: 2013-07-04
Packaged: 2017-12-17 15:34:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/869134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keerawa/pseuds/keerawa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sherlock sees through everything and everyone in seconds. What's incredible, though, is how spectacularly ignorant he is about some things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Arelim

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [](http://watsons-woes.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://watsons-woes.livejournal.com/)**watsons_woes** July Writing Prompts #3: Sacred spaces. Unbeta'd.

The naked corpse was collapsed halfway into the bathroom; limbs sprawled awkwardly in death's indignity. Blood, bone, and brain matter were sprayed across white tiles from what Lestrade had said was a shotgun blast to the face. John knelt down on a clean bit of carpet to examine the body as Sherlock paced the living room.

"No, _staged_ to look like a home invasion. Mr. Adams must have known the killer," Sherlock muttered under his breath.

"Sherlock," John called out.

Sherlock was crouching by his side in a moment.

"This isn't Mr. Adams," John said. "He's Jewish, and this man isn't."

Instead of looking at the corpse, Sherlock examined John. "Excellent, John. Your deductive abilities are improving by leaps and bounds." Sherlock's eyes darted across John's face, to his ears, and then down to his gloved hands. "Personal knowledge, not professional. From your time in the military?" The question hung in the air for a moment before Sherlock continued, "No, obviously not. Previous to that, then, but your own family was Church of England, so how – ah!" He smiled. "Clara."

John nodded. "That's brilliant. Yeah, Clara's Jewish, that's how I recognized the mezuzah on the door frame."

Sherlock turned to the corpse. He inspected the victim's hands, sniffed the shattered remnants of his skull, and then methodically worked his way down the body to the soles of the man's feet. He carefully surveyed the gory bathroom before turning to glare at John. "You are correct that this is not Mr. Adams. Mr. Adams was not a smoker; the victim was. But you claimed that he wasn't Jewish. How did you know? Was it something about the filling in that tooth," he demanded, pointing to a molar on the floor. "Eastern European work, but I can't see how that excludes him from being Jewish."

John cleared his throat. "No, nothing complicated like that. It's just that the victim is, ah, intact."

Sherlock looked perplexed.

"You know," John said, gesturing vaguely towards the victim's crotch. A crease appeared on Sherlock's forehead as he leaned forwards to inspect the victim's genitals. "Christ," John burst out, before noticing that Anderson was watching from the kitchen and finishing in a harsh whisper, "Don't tell me you've deleted circumcision."

Sherlock's eyes narrowed for a moment, then widened. "Oh," he exclaimed, "of course!" He sprang up and bounded for the door.

John struggled to his feet. "You are _not_ to bring any 'samples' back from the morgue," he yelled after Sherlock. "I don't care if it is for a case, if I find any in the fridge…" John trailed off. Sherlock was out of range, which should give John time to think of a properly convincing threat.


End file.
